The present invention relates generally to the field of devices for retaining surgical instruments, and more particularly, to a plastic retainer which may cooperate with either a magnetic or non-magnetic surgical drape to retain medical instruments during surgery.
In the course of surgery, a wide variety of instruments are used. Although the surgeon may use only one or two instruments at a time, the remaining instruments must be readily available for immediate use. In addition, operating procedures require that certain instruments be discarded after just a single use. Therefore, the operating field may include sterile instruments, reuseable contaminated instruments and contaminated instruments which must be discarded. Because each category of instruments must remain separate, the operating field must accommodate a number of instrument retainers.
To accommodate the large number of instruments, sterile magnetic surgical drapes which can be laid on the patient proximal to the incision area have been developed. The magnetic drapes include a plurality of magnets sealed within the drape. Instruments can be laid on the drape by the surgeon and subsequently picked up without requiring time-consuming reaching by the surgeon. Since these drapes conform to the patient, the embedded magnets attract the instruments to the drape, thereby preventing the instruments from sliding off the drape onto the floor. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,658 entitled "Receiver for Surgical Implements," issued to Eldridge on Apr. 17, 1973, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,494 entitled "Magnetic Surgical Drape," issued to Cromie on Dec. 9, 1969. Specifically, the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,658 issued to Eldridge and U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,494 issued to Cromie are hereby incorporated by reference.
A major drawback of the magnetic surgical drapes is that instruments fabricated from a non-magnetizable material, such as plastic or brass, will not adhere to the drape. Further, certain magnetizable instruments are adversely effected by proximity to a magnetic field. For example, it is critical that needle clamps release a needle when desired. However, if the needle clamp or needle is exposed to a magnetic field and either becomes magnetized, then a magnetic attraction between the needle clamp and needle will prevent release of the needle at the desired time. In addition, because the instruments are retained on different areas of the drape, the placement of an instrument in the wrong area may contaminate an entire series of instruments.
In an attempt to resolve these problems, trays have been affixed to a non-magnetic drape by use of sterilized tape. However, a quantity of tape sufficient to secure the tray to the drape may not be sufficient to secure the tray when a quantity of instruments has been placed in the tray. The additional weight of the instruments may cause the tape to fail, allowing the tray and instruments to fall to the floor. Delicate and valuable instruments may be irreparably damaged by falling to the floor. Further, removal of the instruments from the surgical field requires resterilization, thereby adding to the cost of the procedure. In addition, the lightweight drape is often dislodged by an unbalanced tray affixed to the drape. Movement of the drape may cause the instruments to fall from the tray. Exposure of the tape to fluids may also cause the tape to fail. In addition, a tray affixed with tape does not provide a structure which allows for ready relocation of the tray.
An alternative approach for retaining instruments during surgery has included the use of metal trays as receptacles. However, the use of metal trays has severe drawbacks. The hardness of the metal trays may damage delicate instruments, as the instruments are placed into and slide within the tray. Further, the metal trays are non-disposable, thereby requiring substantial sterilization procedures. The necessary sterilization procedures increase the cost of using the metal trays. The cost of manufacturing the metal trays further increases the expense to the hospital. In addition, the noise of instruments contacting the base and walls of a metal tray creates a substantial distraction to the surgeon, thereby creating a risk of injury to the patient.
Therefore, a need exists for a surgical instrument tray which may cooperate with magnetic or non-magnetic surgical drapes in any orientation with respect to the drape without damaging or magnetizing instruments as they are placed in the tray. Further, the need exists for the tray to be either disposable and, therefore, inexpensive to manufacture or alternatively reusable through the established sterilization process.